Heartbreaking and outrageous
Fury as Ariana’s fiancé jokes about Manchester bombing
Ariana and Davidson
Pete Davidson made the gag in a stand-up routine after 22 people were killed by a suicide bomber at an Ariana concert last year.
Last night a mum whose daughter was murdered said: “This is heartbreaking and outrageous.”
Davidson, whose firefighter dad died in the 2001 Twin Towers attack, included the joke in one of his trademark bad taste routines.
He said Ariana must have realised how famous she had become because “Britney Spears didn’t have a terrorist attack at her concert”.
Mum Charlotte Hodgson, who lost her 15-year-old daughter Olivia Campbell-hardy in the attack, said: “For anyone to joke about this situation is disgusting and I think he should publicly apologise for it.
“The families will find it equally as disgusting. We don’t need jokes about it, there have been plenty around, and it’s heartbreaking to hear every day. But for someone so famous to be doing it and now to be with Ariana, it’s outrageous. I think she would be horrified too.”
Jade Clough, 30, who survived the Manchester Arena attack, said she was “shocked” by Davidson’s joke.
Education project worker Jade suffered nerve damage after a bolt severed tendons in her foot and had therapy for her mental anguish.
The mum of one said: “I think it’s absolutely disgusting, I’m shocked.
“This isn’t something to joke about, it was a terrorist attack targeted at children. You don’t joke about things like that in a stand-up comedy show. I’m still suffering on a daily basis, I still have nightmares, and Ariana herself has suffered from PTSD. What the hell?”
Davidson, 24, and Ariana, 25, met in 2016 when she presented cult US TV show Saturday Night Live, which he appears on.
They both split from previous partners in May this year and announced their engagement last month. Davidson made the joke at the Laugh Factory in LA five months after the May 22, 2017 blast.
Sources said it caused a stir even though he is famous for comedy roasts in which stand-ups try to out do each other with crude barbs. One onlooker said: “It drew gasps from the crowd and everyone squirmed in their seats, the event five months earlier was still pretty fresh, and there were plenty of British tourists in the crowd.” Ariana has a worker bee – a symbol of Manchester linked to the city’s industrial past – tattooed behind her ear in tribute to victims of suicide bomber Salman Abedi, 23.
She has revealed she suffered from PTSD after the attack. People with PTSD can suffer from flashbacks, nightmares, severe anxiety, and uncontrollable thoughts about the event that sparked their trauma.
Ariana has previously described feeling guilt for discussing her struggles after the blast. She said: “I know everyone there experienced a tremendous amount of it as well. I feel like I shouldn’t even be talking about my own experience – like I shouldn’t even say anything.”
Davidson declined to comment on the joke, but sources close to him who were at the show said: “His set received a standing ovation.”
Ariana was unavailable for comment.
halina.watts@trinitymirror.com Mum
For anyone to joke about this is disgusting – he should apologise CHARLOTTE HODGSON WHO LOST HER DAUGHTER